debkafile Exclusive: The Mubarak-Abdullah Aqaba summit was dominated by extreme concern over branching out of Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s network
The Egyptian and Jordanian rulers, accompanied by their intelligence chiefs, met urgently Saturday, April 29, to discuss the threat to regional stability posed by the al Qaeda in Iraq’s chief’s expansion and stepped-up operations in Egypt, Sinai, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Jordan.
debkafile‘s sources report Israel was not invited to the summit, although squarely in Zarqawi’s sights, because its new leaders show scant interest in the encroachment of his cells right up to Israel’s borders.
Presented to Mubarak and the king were updates on the penetration of al Qaeda cells into the Egyptian heartland and the towns on the banks of the Suez Canal. They heard about the heavy recruitment by Zarqawi of Palestinians resident in Jordan and northern Sinai.
Friday night, April 28, Zarqawi’s cell in Gaza announced it is waiting for the final signal to execute the order received in mid-week to “revive the traditional sacrifice of apostates” against four Palestinian targets.
They are identified as Fatah followers of Mahmoud Abbas: former interior minister and Gaza strongman Muhammad Dahlan, prominent West Bank figure Yasser Abd Rabbo, deputy chief of Gaza’s Preventive Security Service Samir Mashrawi, and Abu Ali Shihin, an old Yasser Arafat crony from Rafah.